About 60 years ago, a longtime friend and mentor of mine called it “football, country-style.”

The late Ray Saul, then sports editor of Hazleton’s newspaper, used those words to describe a fledgling Weatherly Area High School football team in its first year of competition.

What began then was a run of hard work, hard times, more losses than wins — and a tie.

Names like McMonigle, Antinozzi and Sandt helped shape young men in the school district and on the gridiron.

As a small school in a small town, the Wreckers often brought their bright orange helmets onto a field nestled between their school and a senior living community for home games.

They took on opponents from some faraway places and some not-so-far-away places like Jim Thorpe, Marian and Freeland — where I played against them in the mid-1970s.

The Wreckers had plenty of pride, but their program was plagued by low roster numbers and the financial strain of maintaining equipment and the facilities for a small student body.

Despite the passion of their players, the depth needed to compete with other nearby programs wasn’t enough, and the Friday night lights were turned off in 1982 when the program didn’t have the numbers to field a team.

New interest breathed new life into Wreckers football, and the team took the field again a few years later.

The comeback was short-lived, and in 1985 ended amid a swirl of dwindling numbers and safety concerns. With too few players to field a team or practice squad, the school board made a difficult call to pull the plug on the program and sell off the equipment.

But the pigskin pride ran deep, and a few years later Weatherly found a lifeline for its students that ran down Broad Mountain, straight to Jim Thorpe.

In 2001, interested Weatherly boys were able to bring their speed and brawn to the gridiron as Olympians.

In the fall of that year, they could buckle their chinstraps for the first time in 16 years after boards from both school districts approved a co-op deal that would help both programs.

Under the program, Weatherly agreed to transport players to Jim Thorpe for practices and games.

Players who had an impact on the Olympians’ seasons included surnames like Baker, Shortway, Fleck, Burns, Boothe and O’Shura. Countless others — part of the junior varsity programs — would’ve never had the chance to play.

The co-op ended when Jim Thorpe was forced by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association to move to a higher enrollment classification, thus forcing athletes in all sports to compete against larger schools.

Weatherly’s enrollment — because they competed in Jim Thorpe — pushed up the numbers.

Instead of moving up in classification, Jim Thorpe officials decided to terminate the co-op, allowing them to stay put and compete against schools their own size.

For 18 years since, Weatherly boys have had no formal outlet to play high school football. Any local talent has had no clear path to the varsity level, leaving only memories for locals.

More recently, a new proposal endorsed by both the Weatherly Area and Hazleton Area school boards could end that drought.

Hazleton Area already competes in Class 6A — the state’s largest — so adding a few Weatherly players wouldn’t affect or require any changes.

There are still a few Xs and Os to be worked out.

PIAA officials in District 11, where Weatherly normally competes, and District 2, where Hazleton plays, need to ratify the plan.

It shouldn’t be a problem, especially since co-ops are common in other places across the state, and the PIAA expanded its rules last year, making it easier for students at charter, cyber and private faith-based schools to participate in sports, especially in sports they don’t already offer.

If all goes well, Weatherly players will be eligible to get started in conditioning and practice. They can bring their Wrecker spirit to Hazleton’s Cougars.

And when the whistle blows to start the first game under the Friday night lights of Harman Geist Stadium this fall, fans can get a taste of football, country-style.

ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline.com